Safe Sound
by InuAva
Summary: Takes place after Final, and after Zuko and his Uncle have escaped. Zuko and his Uncle are traveling Aang and his group are traveling. Katara goes separate ways from the group, to meet them at Safe Sound, but she’ll be surprised who she runs into before t
1. Chapter 1

Summary

Takes place after Final, and after Zuko and his Uncle have escaped. Zuko and his Uncle are traveling; Aang and his group are traveling. Katara goes separate ways from the group, to meet them at Soft Sound, but she'll be surprised who she runs into before then. And what she'll have to deal with before then. Zutara T for slight violence

Do not own Avatar: The last airbender

Ok here we go!

The Beginning

* * *

Zuko and his uncle looked worst then ever. There shoulders were slumped and they could barley pick up there feet. There Earth Kingdom clothes were torn and dirty and now to big on them. They could have kept Zuko's fire Nation clothes, Azula **_graciously_** gave them, but it was too much of a reminder. Iroh stopped and looked up at the sky. He sighed

"Zuko, I believe we should find something to eat and then take shelter."

"Why?" Zuko asked, his lack of food obviously getting to his head.

"Because, my dear nephew, if you look at your self, I think you will notice you need some kind of food. Also, look up." Iroh stated, pointing up.

Zuko looked up slowly and muttered and "Oh." Lightning clouds had started to roll across the sky, the sun getting partially covered.

"Let's look for a plant or bush to find fruit or something. No hunting. Even if we tried, we probably couldn't catch a snail." Zuko commented, with a bit of sarcasm.

Iroh nodded and looked to the right and then the left.

"Let's go to the right, it seems more suitable." Zuko just nodded in responses and lead his Uncle in the forest.

_Few minutes later_

Zuko and Iroh had an interesting collection of food…or they thought it was food. They had picked up a few berries varying in colors, three strange looking plants Iroh had convinced Zuko was edible, a yellow, twisted thing that looks kind of like a thin pumpkin, only with no stem, and last but not least a shriveled looking watermelon, only thing was it wasn't green, it was an amber color with bits of silver slashed here and there.

"Oh Zuko, look!" Iroh pointed in front of him excitedly, while accidentally dropping a few berries.

"Uncle you're dropping our food! And what's so great about…" Zuko stopped as he turned towards, what seemed to be a cave entrance. _Yes! No more sleeping in the rain! _Zuko thought happily.

"Come on, Uncle lets go!" Zuko called over his shoulder to his Uncle who was slowly walking towards the cave.

"I'm coming, just give me a minute." Iroh called back, while he continued to walk towards the cave.

_Works with me _Zuko was in the cave and had already started making a make shift camp site. He sorted the foods and popped a berry in his mouth. _This is…SO GOOD! I never though I would like berries so much! _

"Zuko, how are the berries?" His Uncle had come in and started sorting out his food as well.

"There very good, you should eat some while I go get some fire wood. If anything happens, just call me, I'll stay close." Iroh nodded his understanding and picked up a berry and started eying it suspiciously.

Zuko just rolled his eyes and walked out side to find fire wood. He thought to him self while picking up a good looking stick or small log. _After no food for four days it must have taken a real big toll on Uncle. Thank Angi that there was rivers on are way here, or else I don't now how long either of us could of lasted. _He sighed and picked up another stick.

"Huh?" Zuko looked up as he felt a small rain drop fall on his face. He ran back to the cave while skillfully caring ever stick he had picked up. Be the time he had reached the cave, it was pouring out.

"Good thing you came back so soon." Iroh remarked, while helping Zuko put all the sticks and logs down.

Iroh glanced outside. "And also that this cave is above ground." He added sourly. Zuko looked out side and grimaced. The water was steadily rising up; hopefully it wouldn't reach the cave. Zuko started making a fire while Iroh unrolled there mats and blankets.

Once the fire was going and there beds were set up, Zuko turned to his uncle. "How long do you think it will be till this rain stops?" He asked gesturing to the mouth of the cave. His Uncle looked thought full for a minute then sighed. "I believe it will last tonight and part of the morning tomorrow but..." He stopped unsure if he should continue or not.

Zuko raised one of his eyebrows, with his arms crossed over his chest. His Uncles eyes made it look like he was having an inward battle. Iroh straitened and nodded his head, as if he was agreeing with him self for who knows what reason (but me of course). Uncle had his lips locked and his head slightly down. He wasn't going to talk about what ever he was about to say Zuko knew that much.

He growled under his breath and narrowed his eyes at his Uncle. "Uncle, why did you stop talking? What is it?" Iroh shook his head. "It's not important, we should start making dinner." Zuko was about to protest to the sudden change in topic but changed his mind. _Uncle looks so tired, I shouldn't push him to tell we anything _his sensible side told him self_ yet I'm curious as to what's so bad about a little rain._

Shaking his head Zuko took out two hands full of berries and gave one half to him self and the other half to his uncle. He took out the strange looking watermelon and turned to his Uncle. "Uncle, you wouldn't know what this is would you?"

His uncle chuckled softly. "You don't know what it is because you've never seen it or tasted it. I had to eat this when I was a general. It's very filling and has an amazing taste."

Zuko looked at it and then back at his Uncle. "Do you know what it's called?"

His Uncle shook his head. "Sorry, no. All I know is that it is filling and good."

Zuko shrugged. He took out one of his hidden knifes from his sleeve and cut the…whatever it was, in to even slices. The inside was a strange pinkish color with a tint of light green hear and there.

Handing some to his Uncle, Zuko took one him self and stared at it for a second. His Uncle had already started his second piece by the time Zuko took his first bite. _Uncle was right! This is good_ It was surprisingly sweet and had a slight ting to it. It made Zuko very relaxed and he suddenly got his drowsiness in full. He yawned "Uncle I'm going to go to sleep as soon as I finish. If you need anything just ask."

Iroh nodded and continued to eat his share of food. Once they both had eaten there fill, they crawled over to there makeshift beds and fell asleep.

Zuko woke with a start. He looked around for a few seconds, taking in his surroundings. He sighed. _Not again_

Ever since he had busted his Uncle out of the dark, damp cell Azula had him chained to, and ran away from Ba Sing Se, he had been having nightmares.

Zuko let out a shaky breath. _Darn, this one was worst then the last _It was quite vividly running trough his mind.

_He sat in front of a shadowed figure, who was sitting on what looked like a very big chair. Next to him sat another shadowed figure, this one though looked like it was bowing down on her or his knees. Everything was covered in darkness accept for were Zuko sat "What..." He stood up and faced the kneeling person. "Azula!" he remarked surprised, yet was slightly suspicious _

_The light now doubled and shown on Azula. He snapped his head up to look at the mighty figure that had been in front of him, to see if it was who he though it was, the only person Azula would bow down to. "F-Father." Sitting on the throne was his one and only father. _

_The whole room blazed from the fires surrounding Fire Lord Ozai. Zuko's ear twitched when he heard the sound of clanking chains. He spun around to find the Avatar and all his friends chained to a wall. Next to them stood his Uncle, who was trying to pry open the blind girls lock, with no success. _

_"Zuko." A loud, booming, voice could be heard trough out the whole throne room. Zuko slowly turned around, his head down. His face was shadowed and if you could see it, you would see one thing. Fear. _

_A few minutes passed, then some more and some more, until it seemed like hours had passed. Zuko decided to risk it, looking at Ozai. He raised his head slowly, to find him self not in front of his father but in a suffocating darkness. He looked around franticly, and tried to firebend some light, but nothing happened. He couldn't firebend. _

_Zuko's eyes grew a fraction larger when he noticed things where starting to lighten up around him, but it was not to his liking. The scene that unfolded before him was one of his old memorizes and even more pain. There was his uncle in the center of the floor kneeled over someone or something. He saw the Avatar, chained, to a wall in the shadows with the blind earthbender at his uncle's right, and the water tribe warrior, also chained, to a wall to his left. All three of them seemed unconscious or asleep, but they all seemed to have gone trough some beating. There clothes were torn, dirty, and was stained with some blood here and there. They all seemed to have scars and burns some were. Zuko winced sympathetically. _

_"It's alright, everything's going to be fine, don't…," Zuko started to hear someone murmur, looking back at his Uncle, he now saw who he was comforting. It was the waterbender. The one who had beaten him at the North Pole, the one he had betrayed one of the only people he had respect for. And this was even harder to look at then her friends. One of her arms was completely covered in burns, her hair was tumbling everywhere, and her clothes were no better Zuko looked at his Uncle and gasped. 'He…he's covered in blood!' he thought in horror. He looked closer. 'No…that's not his blood.' He swallowed down a lump that had formed in his thought. 'It's hers.' He thought weakly. _

_Zuko sagged to his knees, his eyes glazed over. Now he could see Katara better. She was nearly drenched in blood. 'Who…who would do this. I mean I might have done something like that a long time ago, but I wouldn't have left them there to die slowly! Hum, what's that?' Zuko caught a glint of metal, whatever it was Katara was holding it close to her chest. 'Are those what I think they are?' They were. They were Zuko's broad swords. He could tell by there shape, and just something about them. 'Why does she have my broad swords?' He asked him self curiously. Scanning the room he noticed one thing he'd missed before. Lying close to his Uncle and the waterbender was him. Not only that, he was dead._

_Suddenly, pain shot thought his head, even more painfully around his scar. He gasped, and stumbled back, while holding his head in his arms. Then, his hands began to burn in pain too. After awhile he was on fire. The pain was everywhere. He could barley breath, or see but the last thing he did was look up. _

_What he saw and heard made him go numb all over. There were two pairs of gold eyes staring bitterly at him trough the shadows. Azula stepped forward a bit, and said quietly but coldly. "You should have never betrayed me Zuko, then maybe you wouldn't be in this position. Well, you would have died anyway. You're too weak both mentally, and physically." She stepped back in too the shadows, were her and her father smiled, as Zuko's vision began to disappear in to flames. _

Zuko shook his head, trying to clear it. _What is with these dreams! They don't make sense _He shook his head again and laded down again, with his elbow propping him up. _And why is that girl the center of attention in these dreams? A while ago the Avatar would have been the big picture, but now…she seems to be the only thing I can't get out of my head. _The image of her bloody figure popped into his mind. He shook his head vigorously, and then sighed

_I guess I'll never know. _

* * *

HAHA that's were he's wrong! Anyway, how was it? Good, bad? Just want to see what people think about the idea.

Please update

Thank you


	2. Chapter 2

I'll right here's the next chapter of Cold Fire, hope you enjoy it!

Do not own Avatar

Back to Back

* * *

Katara strode through the camp site doing varies chores. Dinner had to be made; Aang had to be taken care of, Sokka's socks needed to be cleaned…Badly!

Katara's face had a look of disgust on while she carried the dirty lumps in her basket. _Uhhhhhh, this is disgusting! Why must I be the one to clean theses…things! I don't think they would qualify as socks anymore._ With a shake of her head, Katara set her basket on the bank of the river, and slowly stretched her hand towards the top.

She winced as she pinched the first sock with two rigged fingers. Katara was about to dunk the stink ball in to the rushing river for a major washing, when she heard a loud voice yell. "Hey, Sugar Queen! What ya doing?"

Being surprised by the sudden outburst, she flung her hands up, the sock going straight for the cause of all the noise.

"AHHHHHHH! Take cover! It's a smelly attack!" Toph had "seen" the vibrations of Katara's arm throwing the sock. She ran behind a nearby rock, and raised a pile of dirt on top of the sock. Meanwhile Sokka, the Earth Nation King, and his bear came running to see what had happened.

"What's going on?" demanded Sokka, and added after glancing at the scene before him. "And why in the name of La is my poor sock on the ground, covered in dirt none the less?"

Katara rolled her eyes when her brother ran over to the sock and asked it if it was ok.

"Don't be stupid Sokka, I was just surprised, and that's all. Now calm down" Katara walked over to Toph, and apologized.

Toph smirked. "That's ok Sugar Queen, It was better then nothing. I've been bored all morning." She wrinkled her small nose.

"By the way, that…whatever it is, smells like hog monkey dung."

Sokka gaped at her. Katara thought with some humor _He looks kind of like a fish when he does that. _

"What! Don't be so mean to Sockie!"

Everyone gave him the "what-kind-of-stupid-name-is-that" look. Katara shook her head.

"Fine. Whatever, but your cleaning your socks. You might as well forget it if you think I'm doing it." Katara emphasize by pointing from him, to the stream, to herself, and back to him. With that, she and the rest of the group, discluding Sokka, left the clearing.

Sokka began to protest loudly, but was cut of when a stream of water came splashing in to his hands. "UH, Hey, not cool Katara!" the only response he got was a whack in the head. Grumbling to himself, Sokka analyzed the two lumps in front of him.

"It can be _that _bad. I mean there only socks, right?" He said trying to encourage his head, which had started to buzz. He sluggishly picked up the one of the socks, and raised it up about two inches away from his nose. _Blink…blink, blink, blink…_ Sokka's eyes began fluttering and his head lolled back. Suddenly, he was standing up, with the two socks in hand. He plunged them in to the water.

_I'm a warrior, I can take care of washing clothes any day, _He thought in his mind, but it betrayed the real thoughts behind those…

REST OF THE GROUP

When Katara and everyone else returned to the camp site, the first thing they did was check on Aang; he seemed to be some what conscious.

"Aang? Are you feeling any better?" Katara asked, concern written all over her face.

Aang groaned and slowly sat up. "Where are we?" He said slowly glancing around there

camp site.

When no one answered, Toph shook her head sadly. "We have no idea." Aang sighed and lay back down, then sat up again.

"Where's Sokka? I don't see him anywhere." Katara smirked and Toph laughed.

"He's trying to clean his socks, I think, but he probably…" Katara began, but was interrupted.

"He probably what? I swear Katara you have no faith in me." Everyone's heads went into the direction of Sokka, and everything was silent.

Toph and Katara began to crack up while Aang chuckled lightly. Sokka looked at them funnily then asked, annoyed.

"What? What is so funny?" Sokka's face had started to turn red from embarrassment.

Katara and Toph tried to speck, but instead had another round of giggles. Aang, seeing how neither of them was going to say anything, told Sokka.

"You're drenched in water, your socks don't look that clean, and there's a monkey-crab on your arm." Sokka stared out in the distance for a second before peering at his arm.

"ERAGH!" He yelled, while trying to remove the animal that so desperately clung to his shirt.

"Get it off, get it off!"

Katara, finally done laughing, came over to Sokka and stroked the monkey-crabs tail. It sighed and let go. It then pinched Sokka's toe and scurried back in the direction in which he had come.

"Ow! Why that little…" Sokka began loudly and ended so softly nobody could here him. Not that they really cared, anyway. Katara helped Aang get on to Appa, while the Earth King, his bear, Sokka, and Toph helped clean things up around camp.

When everything was set up, first Aang went up, with the Earth King to settle him in, than his bear, then Sokka, and then Toph. Katara though was still on land. Sokka noticed and immediately came to her side.

"Come on, let's go." He urged, but she shook her head.

"I'm staying down here. I need to have sometime to think to myself." She said bluntly, as if it were the most casual thing. Sokka's eyebrows rose, and then knitted together.

"What are you talking about? We've got to get going." He was clearly annoyed about how things were turning up.

"I said I'm not going. I need to have time to think." She repeated, "Think about having to take care of a sarcastic little girl, a meat obsessed brother, an injured 12 year old Avatar, an Earth King, and his bear. I'll meet up with you guys at Safe Sound, don't worry." Safe Sound is the village they agreed to go to, once Aang had become conscious.

Sokka closed his mouth with a frown, and the passengers were also as quite. The silence was broken when a voice from aboard Appa.

"She deserves a break, Sokka. Let's get going." Aang had positioned himself so he was leaning over the saddle.

Sokka scowled when Toph and the Earth King murmured in agreement.

"Fine, but you better not get in any trouble, ok?" He said gruffly, but anyone who looked at him could tell he was concerned. Katara smiled and hugged him.

"Don't worry about me, Sokka. You now I can take care of myself." She said mockingly while she flipped her water pouch around in the air. Sokka smiled thinly and got on to Appa.

"Yip Yip!" He said while sitting down and taking the reins.

"Bye, Katara!" shouted Aang over the rush of wind.

"See ya later, Sugar Queen." Toph also yelled. Katara smiled and waved vigorously, till they were just a tiny dot.

With Zuko and Iroh

It had been two days since Zuko and Iroh had arrived at the cave and the area outside seemed to be finally clearing up. Right now Iroh and Zuko were meditating; the flame of the fire going up and down with there in takes and exhales of breath. Zuko, though, appeared to be struggling with control. _Why can't I even concentrate! _One part of him asked helplessly. Another answered rudely _Because, stupid, you've been doing the same thing for the past two days! _

Zuko shook his head, and stood up. He turned to his Uncle and told him he was going on a walk.

"Alright, dear nephew, but be careful." Zuko snorted lightly.

"All be fine, Uncle, don't worry about me." And then he got up and left the cave.

* * *

Katara

* * *

Katara marched down the bank of a stream with much going on trough her mind. _I hope everyone's doing ok…I wonder how far away I am from Soft Sound…What time is it?_

After an hour or so she decided to take a break.

Noticing a comfortable looking tree base, she trotted over to it. It was tall, so tall she could barely make out the end of it. It must have been at least a hundred feet up. The trunk looked like she couldn't even put her arms around it. The leaves were a beautiful green, and the trunk looked almost soft. On the other side of the tree the sun could be seen high in the sky, but not quiet in the middle. _Uh, most be around four, five a'clock._

She lay down with her back to the tree, and soon fell asleep.

* * *

Zuko

* * *

Zuko had been wondering the area for almost half an hour and was getting strangely tired. _I should probably get back to Uncle now. Oh, I'll only rest for a few minutes, and then all go back. _

Looking around he spotted an old kind of tree, right next to a stream on the other side the sun could be seen about a quarter of a way from might. _Most be six, then. _The tree held a kind of grace that could catch the Fire Lord's eye. The trunk was a light brown color, and the leaves were a light green.

_That is one tall tree _Zuko thought before laying against the side facing the sun. Untruthful to his thoughts he feel asleep, and for the first time in awhile, with out any might mares.

* * *

Unknown to the sleepers, there leaning on the same tree! Haha

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review!

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